Polari returns to The Printworks.
Hosted by Paul Burston with Jake Arnott, Jane Cholmeley, Alice Denny, Patrick Kealey and VG Lee.
Bookstall kindly provided by Printed Matter.
“Always fun, always thought-provoking, a guaranteed great night out!” - Sarah Waters
7pm doors for 7.30pm start. There is a bar service available at this event.
£8 (£6 conc) in advance, £10 (£8) on the door
About Polari -
Founded in 2007 by author and activist Paul Burston, Polari is a live showcase for emerging and established LGBTQ literary talent.
Tonight's event is part of The Polari Prize 15th Birthday Showcase, funded by Arts Council England.
For more info please visit www.polarisalon.com
About the lineup -
Jake Arnott is an award-winning novelist whose bestselling debut The Long Firm was adapted as a BAFTA award-winning BBC TV drama series starring Mark Strong and Sir Derek Jacobi. His second novel, He Kills Coppers was made into an ITV1 series, starring Rafe Spall and Kelly Reilly. His subsequent novels include truecrime, Johnny Come Home, The Devil’s Paintbrush, The House of Rumour and The Fatal Tree. He wrote the highly acclaimed BBC Radio 3 drama The Visa Affair about Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell, that featured Russell Tovey, Tom Burke and Alison Steadman. His new novel, Blood Rival, is published on 14 October 2025.
Jane Cholmeley is a key figure in the history of British feminism. She co-founded Silver Moon Women’s Bookshop, which became the largest of its kind in Europe and a vibrant centre of women’s writing, hosting prestigious events with authors such as Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, Jeanette Winterson and Margaret Atwood. Sandi Toksvig nominated Jane Cholmeley as a Gay Icon in the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition of that name in 2009 and Jacqueline Wilson named Jane her feminist icon in Stylist, 2018.
Alice Denny ‘adopted’ Hastings as her home town in the early 1980’s, arriving with her young family via university and Hailsham to work as a community psychiatric nurse - and quickly developed a fierce affection for the town. Since 2010 she has divided her time between Hastings and Brighton where she currently lives. Alice’s poems reflect her perspective on the joys of womanhood, love, loss, sexuality, marginalisation and injustice. Alice despises bullying in all it’s forms, especially in herself.
Patrick Kealey has worked as an actor and theatre director, producer, drama lecturer, workshop leader and playwright. His theatre work has taken him to America, France, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia and Colombia, as well as theatres and festivals throughout the UK and Ireland. He performs two solo shows, including the award-winning adaptation of The Life and Times of Archy and Mehitabel.
Patrick also worked as a tour guide all around Ireland for over twenty years and, somewhere along those winding Irish roads, his gay coming of age story Bogboy was born. This is a true story in everything but the detail.
VG Lee is a novelist and short story writer. Her work has appeared in numerous and diverse publications including Queer Life, Queer Love 2 (Muswell Press), Poetry Review, Beyond Bedlam (Anvil), The Lady Magazine, Diva Magazine and more recently The Guardian. In 2017, her fifth novel Mr Oliver’s Object of Desire was runner up for Diva/YLVA Publishing Literary Prize for Fiction. In 2022 she was long-listed for the BBC National Short Story Competition. Lee is also a judge for the Polari Book Prize.